Transfer of Language Training from German (And English) to Swedish

Transfer of Language Training from German (And English) to Swedish ERNST V A N

HAAGEN

Downloaded by UNIV OF SYDNEY on February 28, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 17, 1954 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1954-0010.ch055

126 East 31st St., New York 16, Ν. Y.

Chemical literacy in German and English can be extended to include Swedish with the aid of a re markably small amount of additional information; without this, however, very simple Swedish sentences would be unintelligible. An attempt is made to present this information in useful form, so that Swedish chemical literature can be read immediately with tolerable speed and comprehension and without excessive dictionary work. There are only some hundreds of Swedish words not readily intelligible, in context, from the point of view of German and English, and only a few of these are of high fre quency. Swedish grammar embodies only two prin ciples foreign to English and German. A specimen passage illustrates practical procedure. Applications to the other Scandinavian and Germanic languages, and to other groups of languages, are suggested. The literature chemist, where his work renders this desirable, can become effectively polyglot for purposes of reading comprehension.

The training that technical people have in their own language and usually i n one or more foreign languages can be transferred with great ease to still other foreign languages for searching and reading the literature. English is favorably placed, i n that i t will serve as one point of reference for either the Romance or the Germanic group of European languages. A d d another point of reference—say, German or French—and we can find our bearings throughout the group to which i t belongs. A region that can be navigated very successfully b y triangulation on English and G e r man is the literature of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, which together form a linguistic province of great homogeneity. This area is covered today b y a carpet of dialects each differing minutely from its neighbor regardless of national boundaries, and all descended from O l d Norse, or substantially Icelandic. I n modern times these dialects have pro duced two great literary languages, Swedish and Danish-Norwegian. They differ, to the foreign eye, chiefly i n spelling habits. Since about 1900, standard Danish and stand ard Norwegian have become slightly differentiated from each other. T o read any one of these languages even slightly is to read the other two at least as well. Their vocabu lary and grammar offer little that is wholly alien to German and English.

Swedish Literature The process of transfer of language training is well illustrated b y Swedish. Sweden is producing a significant chemical literature, notably i n the fields of wood, paper, elec529

LITERATURE RESOURCES Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1954.

ADVANCES IN CHEMISTRY SERIES


530

trolysis, power, and metallurgy. Swedish patents command widespread interest. Swedish is an important auxiliary language i n Finland, which publishes a number of Swedish-language periodicals. Pronunciation. F o r purposes of reading comprehension, i t is convenient to pronounce the Swedish letters C, V, and Ζ as i n English; A like English awe; Y like German u; and all other letters substantially as in German. Stress follows the same principles as in German, falling usually on the first and some times on the second syllable, and on the last syllable of words from the French and L a t i n . M a n y French words are recognizable only by sound and not by spelling—for example, koaffyr = coiffure; to identify such cases, the final syllable should be stressed and the letters ch, g, and j pronounced as in French. Spelling. Changes i n Swedish spelling have occurred at various times, notably substitution of ν for fv and / , and of t or tt for dt; and omission of initial h before conso nants. There has elso been some tendency towards interchanging a and e. I n reading older literature, or using older dictionaries, words must accordingly be sought i n several different alphabetical places. Specimen Passage. T h e first part of the following specimen passage has been interlineated with German clues and an English translation. Dashes (-) mark elements best understood directly through English; asterisks (*), initial letters of elements to be found i n the special Swedish-English glossary below; and daggers (f), terminations ex plained in the section on grammar. Fôrsôk t i l l en C h e m i s k N o m e n c l a t u r Versuch * einEssay towards a Chemical Nomenclature Pâ en t i d dâ h v a r j e sprâk dels o f v e r s â t t e r dels * einer Zeit da * Sprache teils iibersetzt teils At a time when each language is in part translating, in part sjelf selbst itself

bildar nya vetenskapsbildet neue Wissenschaftsforming new scientific

och * and

k ο n s t-be n âmn i n gKunst- Benennungtechnical terminolo-

a r , e n l i g a med dess eget l y n n e , t o r d e f ô r e t a g e t att en einlich mit dess eigen Laune * Vor-(nahme)t * gies, according to its own whim, the project of estabâter u p s t a l l a en L a t i n s k C h e m i s k N o m e n c l a t u r synas achter aufstellen ein* t fishing anew a Latin Chemical Nomenclature might seem onyttigt. Emedlertid unniitzig in-mittler-zeit futile. Nevertheless, it

àr * is

det en B a n n i n g a t t das eine * * a fact that the

vetenWissendevelop-

s k a p e r n a s o d l i n g i a l l m â n h e t mâste a f t a g a i m a n som schaften t * in Allgemeinheit mu0te ab(nehmen) in * * ment of the sciences at large was bound to diminish insofar sàrskildta L a n d e r s v e t e n s k a p s i d k a r e * Lander f Wissenschafts- * as scientists in different countries have

s k i l j a sig ifrân * sich * drawn apart from

h v a r a n d r a i sprâkgemenskap. U t o m svârigheten att * in Sprachgemeinschaft * Schwierigkeit f * one another in unity of language. Apart from the difficulty fôrstâ sàrskildta tungomâl, orsakas d e r a f en o b e verstehen * Zunge-Maule ursacht f eine Unbeof understanding diverse tongues, this causes an indefs t â m d h e t i t e r m e r , som fôder mer e l l e r m i n d r e bestimmtheit * * mehr * minder beinitenees in terms that gives rise to more or less tydliga och for vetenskapern&s framsteg deutliche * fiir * -Steg serious mistakes, detrimental to the progress

skadliga schUdliche of the


VAN

HAAGEN—TRANSFER OF L A N G U A G E TRAINING

misstag. sciences.

531

J a g o n s k a r v i s t i c k e a t t d e n t i d mâ â t e r k o m * wiinsche gewi£ * * Zeit mag achterkomI do not of course wish for a return to the time

m a dâ de l a r d a i s i n a s k r i f t e r a l l e n a s t n y t t j a d e L a men da die Gelehrten in (ihren) Schriften alleinst benutzten when scholars, in their writings, exclusively employed the tinska sprâket, hvilket, under det sambandet dem emellan derigenom welches(wâhrenddem) * * * * Latin language, which, while communication among them thereby lâttades, altid betog almânheten begagnandet af deras arbeten och gjorleicht-t * * de deras kunskaper till ett slags Monopolium for dem. Vetenskaperna


gagna mânniskoslâgtet blott i man som deras resultater blifva aimant fattliga och kunna uttryckas pâ ett for mângden begripligt sâtt; men * * àfven de larde behofva, oaktat de nyttja sina sàrskildta sprâk, i hvarje unbeachtet * vetenskap vissa aimant kânda benàmningar, till hvilka olika sprâks vegewisse ungleiche tenskaps-termer kunna hânfôras, och till sâdana allmànna benàmningar àr intet sprâk tjenligare ân det Latinska: Utan den sâdan almân Nomen* dienlicher clatur blifva alla termer snart obestàmda, osâkra och olika tillâmpade * * af sârskilda fôrfattare. This passage is from an article published i n 1812 by Berzelius, the celebrated Swedish chemist responsible for many features o'f our present nomenclature and notation.' The article bears the title "Fôrsôk t i l l en Chemisk Nomenclatur/' i n which fôrsôk is identifi able with German Versuch. Till is the same word as i n English, but rather i n the sense of " t o " or "towards." The other words are obvious, but Chemisk and Nomenclatur would today be spelled with k instead of ch and c. Proceeding to the text, we read "Pâ en t i d dâ hvarje s p r â k . . . " The preposition pâ is conspicuous as a peculiarity of the Scandinavian languages; it may conveniently be read as English 'pon or upon. The word en is known from the title as the masculinefeminine indefinite article, German ein(e) ; the neuter form, by the way, is ett. Tid is recognized as German Zeit or English tide. So far, then, we have "Pâ en t i d . . .," " U p o n a time. . ." The next word, dâ, is to be read as German da, i n this context logically " w h e n . " A s in the case of " P â , " the asterisk under " h v a r j e " indicates that this word can be found by consulting the special glossary of simple Swedish words not sufficiently similar to German or English equivalents to be readily understandable i n context. I n the glossary, however, the only entry under hv- is "(see v-)." Initial h before I and ν is obsolete. Looking accordingly under varje without the h, we find "each." The next word, sprâk, is evidently German Sprache. This completes the phrase as " A t a time when each language. . ." The text continues " . . .dels ôfversatter dels sjelf b i l d a r . . . , " readily suggesting " . . .teils ubersetzt teils selbst bildet. . .," which is tolerable German for ". . .partly translates partly itself forms. . ." The -r of ôfversatter and bildar is the characteristic ending of the present singular. Proceeding, och is cognate with German auch and archaic English eke, but more often means " a n d " ; as i n this case. Terminal - r i n nouns, as i n benàmningar, is the commonest sign of the plural. Rereading, "Pâ en t i d dâ hvarje sprâk dels ôfversatter dels sjelf bildar nya vetenskaps och konst-benâmningar" : " A t a time when each language is in part translating, i n part itself forming new scientific and technical terminologies..." " . . .enliga med dess eget l y n n e . . . " Enliga suggests einlich, which is not good German but i n turn contextually suggests its meaning "according t o , " though perhaps not until the rest of the phrase has been deciphered. Eget is to its more recognizable masculinefemine form egen as the neuter i n d e f i n i t e a r t i c l e ett is to en. Lynne might be recognizable LITERATURE RESOURCES Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1954.

ADVANCES IN


532

CHEMISTRY SERIES

as German Laune, not a common word i n chemical literature; the dictionary (4) may have to supplement intuition and the Glossary. W e have " . . .according to its own whim, . . . " Reading on until the easy words outnumber the hard ones, " . . .torde fôretaget att âter uppstâlla en Latinsk Chemisk Nomenclatur synas oynttigt." T h a t is the end of the sentence. Torde is found i n the glossary as "would, should." If we recognize the first part of fôretaget as fore and the second part as take, and translate fore-take literally into German as Vornehmen, we get "undertaking" or "project." The dagger under the final -t of "fôretaget" calls for reference to the notes on grammar. A seemingly unneces sary syllable involving η or t at the end of a Scandinavian noun usually represents the definite article. This is one of the two conspicuous peculiarities i n the structure of N o r t h Germanic languages. Fôretaget therefore means "the project." Just plain "project" would be "fôretag"; "projects," a\soforetag; and "the projects," fôretagen. The next word, att, is the preposition to with the infinitive, and " a t t âter uppstâlla" is a split infinitive. E v e n today, the Swedes do not object to this. Ater reminds one of "after" but here amounts to " a g a i n " : "to again set u p . " The remaining difficulty is synas, at the end of the line, where the dagger again refers us to the section on grammar—for the last time. A n -s at the end of a Scandinavian verb form marks the passive. This is the other major departure of Swedish from German and English grammar, which has no simple passive. Synas can thus be read as "to be seen" or "to seem." However, the active verb syna does not apply; the passive i n finitive synas is listed in the glossary as meaning "seem." I n this sentence, it goes with torde: " . . .torde fôretaget. . .synas onyttigt," "the project of setting up anew a L a t i n chemical nomenclature might seem futile." Berzelius capitalization is capricious, like that of English in 1812; a transitional stage between the usage preserved i n German and our own. Present-day Swedish keeps capitals to a minimum. Archaism versus modernism does not ordinarily present a problem. A certain Scan dinavian tendency towards chronic spelling reform has not obscured the close relation ship of the languages to English and German, nor has it made them more difficult to read from the present point of view. Variant spellings cause some trouble i n the use of dic tionaries. Usually one of the obvious ways of respelling a word without substantially changing its apparent sound will lead to success in these cases. E a c h successful solution is likely to prove the key to other words in the same or different texts. The salient points for Swedish are covered i n the remark on spelling. They are typical of the behavior of Norwegian and Danish also. T o continue the reading: "Emedlertid âr det en sanning att vetenskapernas odling i allmànhet mâste aftaga i mân som sàrskildta Landers vetenskapsidkare skilja sig ifran hvarandra i sprâkgemenskap." Emedlertid is today spelled with ll instead of Id, and appears thus i n the Glossary. It suggests in-mittler-zeit, which suggests its meaning, "however." Ar means is. Sanning is the general Scandinavian word for " t r u t h . " Att is this time the conjunctive " t h a t . " Vetenskapernas: vetenskap "science," vetenskaper "sciences," vetenskaperna "the sciences," vetenskapernas "of the sciences." A l l noun forms, singular or plural, definite or indefinite, make the possessive by adding -s. Odling: the glossary gives odla, " c u l t i v a t e " ; hence " c u l t i v a t i o n , " "development." I is the preposition " i n . " Allmànhet illustrates the fact that the German prefix or infix -ge- is generally missing i n Scandinavian cognates. I n aftaga, we must again recognize taga as " t a k e " (or find it in the glossary) and translate into German abnehmen to arrive at "decrease.". The glossary gives man "degree, extent" and som " a s " ; i man som " i n so far as." Sàrskildt: glossary, sàr- " a p a r t , " skil- "differ"; hence "various." Landers: land country, lander countries, landers "of countries"; "of various countries." Vetenskapsidkare: The question is whether the second member is sidkare or idkare, since the -s- may or may not be part of vetenskap (s), as i n German compound words. T r y i n g both sidkare and idkare in the glossary or in the dictionary if that were necessary, we find only idka "carry o n " ; hence "carriers-on of science"—i.e., scientists. Skilja: "differ" again. Ifran appears i n the glossary as " f r o m " ; literally " i n - f r o m " ; the Scandinavian languages are rich in compound prepositions in which the first element often seems to contribute little to the ,


VAN

533

HAAGEN—TRANSFER O F L A N G U A G E TRAINING

meaning. Hvarandra: kvar (or var) "each" as before, making "each other." " N e v e r theless, i t is a fact that the development of the sciences at large was bound to diminish in so far as scientists i n different countries have drawn apart from one another i n unity of language." Some liberties have been taken i n translation to gloss over the seeming contradiction of "differing i n community"; the contradiction vanishes i n the Swedish if skilja sig is taken more literally as German scheiden sich instead of unterscheiden sich. Incidentally, skilja sig amounts to much the same as the passive form skiljas, "are sepa r a t e d " ; the -s of the passive ending may very conveniently always be read as German sich for ease of comprehension. Merely touching on some of the points of interest in the next sentence: " U t o m svârigheten att fôrstâ sàrskildta tungomâl, orsakas deraf en obestàmadhet i termer, som fôder mer eller mindre betydliga och for vetenskapernas framsteg skadliga misstag. Jag ônskar. . . " It is necessary to read words b y trial with the stress on different syllables to find the form intelligible to the ear; for'sta suggests " f i r s t , " which makes poor sense, but for-sta suggests verstehen, which is right. Incidentally, the letter a represented b y circled A is not found i n unstressed syllables. Orsakas: ursacht sich = wird verursacht = is caused. Deraf: "thereof" = thereby. Som: the glossary gives "as; who, which, t h a t " ; " a s " suffices for reading with the aid of the Cockney idiom "the book as I was reading of." Perhaps most Scandinavian relative clauses are so constructed, with the preposition, if any, duly at the end. Framsteg: from (glossary) " f o r t h " ; fortrsteg = Fortschritt. Onskar: German initial w- usually becomes v- but vanishes entirely before o, u and their umlauts o, y. G r a m m a r . ENDINGS OF N O U N S . T h e ending of a noun i n the plural may be -or, -ar, -er, - n , or the same as i n the singular, w i t h or without vowel change. T h e definite article takes the form of a suffix added to the singular or plural of the noun. T h i s suffix is -en or -n i n the masculine-feminine singular, -et or -t i n the neuter singular, and -na (rarely -ne) i n the plural (-a i f the plural already ends i n n ) . Before an adjective, there may be a detached definite article of the familiar sort. Its forms are den i n the masculine-feminine singular, det i n the neuter singular, de i n the p l u r a l . T h e possessive of any form of a noun, singular or plural, definite or indefinite, is made b y adding s. T h e following is an example of the eight possible forms of a


1

noun: kemist kemister kemisten kemisterna kemists kemisters kemistens kemisternas

chemist chemists the chemist the chemists chemist's chemists' the chemist's the chemists'

ENDINGS OF V E R B S . The following are the usual endings of verbs, with the conju gation of kalla " t o c a l l " as an example: Passive

Active Infinitive Present singular Present plural Past singular Past plural Present participle Past part., masc.-fem. sing. Neuter singular Plural and /or def. Subjunctive

-a -r -a -(d) de, -(t)te, — -(d)de, -(t)te, -o -nde -(d) d, -t, - n -(t)t -(d)da, -de, - t a , - n a -e

kalla kallar kalla kallade kallade kallande kallad ) kallat > kallade J kalle

kallas kallas kallas kallades kallades kallats (been called) kalles

Practically any form of any verb can be made passive b y addition of s. Before this s, the r of the present singular drops out; an e preceding this r may also be dropped. Compound tenses are formed with auxiliary verbs much as i n German and i n English. LITERATURE RESOURCES Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1954.

ADVANCES IN CHEMISTRY SERIES

534

Special Swedish-English Glossary Simple Swedish words not sufficiently similar to G e r m a n or E n g l i s h equivalents to be readilyunderstandable i n context.

In the Swedish alphabet, the letters À,

named, and are not to be found under A,


A A . B . (aktiebolag) aderton aldrig allvar alst(e)ralv am per andandrang. (anflâende) annantingen ark arvode ask a.et. (anfôrda Pallet) att av(e)lax

Inc. eighteen never seriousness producsubsoil pungent breath; spirit, mind second; other re other; second whether, either sheet of paper etc.(cf. Bogen) remuneration box loc. cit. to, that breed, etc. spike

Β back bâra barn barr basbe(dj-) beck bel am r a belàten berama besk beskarmbetbil bill bisam bjugg bjôrn black bl.a. (Wand annat) bland bli blid bliva = blivande blossblund black blôja blot bo bod bogsera boja bolag bol m a

slope; ground (if) only (cf. Ε . bare) child (cf. Ε . bairn) (pine) needle w h i p ; singe; r u n ask pitch (cf. G . Pech) encumber contented arrange bitter lamentsteep, mordant automobile (plow) share musk barley bear ( G . Bar) dark i. a. among become, be mild Mi future flare ( E . blush) wink ink bib wet dwell store tug, tow bond company emit smoke

A,

ô

follow Ζ i n the order

O.

bâta bagge bôra borja-

bottlenose oil ought donkey ought; away (cf. G . fort) keep (be) away chaff cure, penance lack bridge brother, friend cartilage oestrverge, brow sudden thymus brim decoy, d u m m y village; gust laundry (ex) change torso; thallus compartment avail (cf. Ε . boot) both ought (inf.) begin

cederolja cedroolja

cedarwood oil oil of citron

damm dana den, det, de didigna dimma die dit ditât djârv djup djur docka dog dok dold dom domkraft domna drack dricka drista sig drott, drottning drucken drunkna dryck dryfta dryg

dust to form the sucklsag mist haze thither thitherward bold deep animal ( G . Tier, E . deer) doll died (see dô) veil hidden (see dôlja) judgment (cf. doma) jack subside drank drink dare king, queen drunk drown beverage discuss swollen

bomolja borde boricka bort borta boss bot brist bro bror brosk brunst bryn

brad G.

brass bratte bulvan by byk byta bâl

bas

c D


VAN

kill finance lag, take time -plicate (det vi\\ saga) i.e. period of 24 hours mud bad thence thereif die, dead conceal judge (cf. Ε . deem)

drapa drâtsel drôja -dubbel d.v.s. dygn dy dàlig dâdan dârdàrest do, dôd dôlja dôma

Ε Downloaded by UNIV OF SYDNEY on February 28, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 17, 1954 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1954-0010.ch055

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eder, edert, edra eho ehuru ej e.Kr. el eld eljes(t) eller e.m. emedan emellan emellertid emot enahanda enda(st) endera enkel enkom enskild enstaka entrâgen enâr e.o. er, ert, era erbjuda erkansla ernâ esomoftast ett ettdera evad evar

your whoever although not (efter /Cristus) A . D . electrfire otherwise, else or (eftermiddagen) p . m . because between, among however against = G . einerlei only either (m.

Transfer of Language Training from German (And English) to Swedish

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